Refugee Mental Health

Best Practice Guidelines for Mental Health Promotion Programs: RefugeesCentre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH)
This document provides guidelines on the implementation of mental health promotion practices and is intended for service providers working with refugee populations in Canada. It includes reviews of current mental health promotion programs and addresses the experiences of refugees from different countries.

The Refugee Mental Health Online Courses
The Refugee Mental Health Project aims to build health care professionals’ and settlement workers’ knowledge and skills regarding refugee mental health issues. The aim of this initiative is to contribute to an informed, sustainable network of service provision. hese courses are intended to enhance service providers’ knowledge, communication, comfort and cultural competence when working with refugee clients. The self-directed courses are free and are offered to health care professionals and settlement counselors/social workers/social service providers who work directly with refugees.

WPA Guidance on Mental Health and Mental Health Care in Migrants
This paper reviews current evidence on mental health problems in migrants and presents advice to clinicians and policy makers on how to provide migrants with appropriate and accessible mental health services. The three phases of the migration process and the relevant implications for mental health are outlined, as well as the specific problems of groups such as women, children and adolescents, the elderly, refugees and asylum seekers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. The concepts of cultural bereavement, cultural identity and cultural congruity are discussed.

Cultural Consultation for Refugees
This chapter focuses primarily on the situation of refugee claimants. After presenting the legal definition of a refugee, there is a brief overview of pre-migratory, transit, and postmigratory factors that may affect refugee claimants’ psychosocial status, including a more detailed discussion of two com- mon postmigratory problems: detention and family separation. The next section examines clinical intervention with refugee claimants, particularly the assessment and treatment of posttraumatic symptoms. Finally, there is a discussion of the ways in which clinicians may act upon the social determinants of refugee claimants’ health, including a detailed explanation of how to write a report in the context of refugee status proceedings.

Role of Psychological Evidence in Refugee Decision-makingThe following articles from the Trauma and Mental Health Unit, School of Psychiatry, University New South Wales report on findings from a mental health and legal analysis of a series of refugee decisions involving the submission of psychological evidence.

Mental health professionals, legal representatives, and decision/policy makers can also access detailed guidelines about improving the quality and interpretation of psychological evidence. These guidelines are especially useful for those involved in providing mental health and cultural assessments of asylum seekers as part of the refugee determination procedure. For more information contact: www.sjog.org.au/richmond